I am looking for some guidance regarding overwintering of Butterfly Bushes. Mine die to the root here in southern NH and I wonder if mulch or burlap wrapping would help them regrow from the branches. Beautiful garden Ozark Hillbilly. Thank you for the photos.
6.
Mel
Beautiful and so peaceful. And Bee Balm!!
7.
Mary G
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought it was a hydrangea, but I’ve never seen one that red.
Mine do the same here and our winters are nothing compared to NH winters.
9.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mary G: We bought it at a local garden show. I no longer remember any of the details. The first couple years it did very little in the way of flowering and remained a scrawny little thing that appeared to be barely hanging on. Then 3 or 4 years ago it just took off and has really come into it’s own. It currently resides in a bed of periwinkle but now I’m wishing I had planted it somewhere else where I could do more to highlight it.
Gardening gurus do you have any recommendations for landscaping books? We have a little more than an acre and right now its just boring old lawn and some trees and bushes and some flower beds in the front of the house.
Ground covers are a pretty and practical way to bring diversity, elegance, and durability to open sweeps of lawn. Give your landscape a vibrant new palette that is both sustainable and low-maintenance through plantings of herbs, shrubs, mosses, and more. Barbara W. Ellis provides a variety of full-color lawn designs and professional planting advice to get you started. You’ll be amazed as your ordinary lawn transforms into a striking display of color and texture.
19.
Lapassionara
Lovely! Thanks for sharing.
20.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: @schrodingers_cat: I took Ozark’s advice and checked Covering Ground out of the library along with a couple of other books on ground cover. It was the best one. It will be my guide in the next few years for replacing weeds and mulch with low growing ground cover.
More on the Houston Modi rally. Indian media, which at this point is acting like a Modi broadcast service is reporting that many American electeds are expected T, may be Ted Cruz and Cornyn, Tulsi and another D congressman of Indian origin from Illinois whose name escapes me at this moment. Houston Chronicle on the other hand is reporting on the planned protest against the rally.
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks I also need advice about hardscaping.I have some ideas for walkaways and gardens but don’t have the expertise or even the jargon to begin the process.
We saw pictures of this deck as it was being built, right? It turned out beautiful!
24.
Gvg
@schrodingers_cat: remember to think local. I garden in Florida, and early on I found out garden books written for the whole country are laughably wrong. Stuff dies from our heat, or hangs on but never looks great, or needs a cold period. Check where the authors live or have lived. Local native plant societies are full of people who know what grows. Most of then grow non native too, they just emphasize native more, and tend to get rid of anything that struggles.
I do like a few books written about landscaping for general regions, I just often have to substitute plants. “The romantic garden” by Graham Rose, “Attracting birds to southern gardens”, “the garden in autumn” by Alan Lacy. I learned a lot about design from magazines such as Southern Living, Fine Gardening, and Garden Design. Collect magazine pictures of any garden you like, and organize them in folders or ring binders. If there is some type of feature you save over and over, that means you really consistently like that. It will also help if you end up talking to a professional designer.
25.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The shipping was the killer! I could have gone the field expediency route but when I found out how much they cost I figured “what the hell”!
26.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Same book covered hardscaping, which I don’t need with < 1/8 acre. We put in a brick patio and fish pond and that’s all the hard surface I want to have
I’ll have to send a pic or two one of these days. Corsican Mint is taking over some of the area (and surviving the winter). Smells great when you step on it!
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@Wanderer: that’s normal for butterfly bush in colder climates, but it will regrow quickly. Mulching it will protect the root ball though, so it won’t hurt.
@OzarkHillbilly: really lovely garden spot! My hydrangea plants are all doing the “first year sleeping, second year creeping” thing, so next summer I hope for that “third year leap” that finished the old garden rhyme. My peonies are doing the same thing, so I have high hopes for 2020, in many ways ?
30.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: She talks about hardscaping too, it’s uses and the various types, their pros and cons, but iirc it is mostly about plantings with them. My memory could be wrong on that last point.
Nice flowers, Ozark. And that is the carpark patio, right? Excellent looking barrier — the corner detail was genius. But then again, I guess you know that….
Whew what a win by Virginia last night…I think the football team took lessons on heart-stopping last second finishes from the basketball team!
Also, looks like in addition to taking everyone’s AR-15s, we will need to #ImpeachKavanaugh (in addition to dozens of other trumpov/McConnell judges, I’m sure). Exciting times!
37.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Imagine my shock on clicking thru and finding that the 11 words are indeed translatable.
38.
Immanentize
I have a very big Limelight Hydrangea in my yard that I love. The flowers go from light green to a near white to green and now they are turning fall rusty red. I love this plant and it has gotten huge — ten plus feet high and as wide. The red flowers look great cut in a case, although they do not smell as sweet as when the are white.
39.
waratah
I have been waiting for photos of your water feature area this year and hoped I did not miss them. Beautiful and relaxing. The plants really filled in and your carpentry skills really show.
Your close up flower photos are gorgeous.
40.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Repeating for the morning crowd.
My husband wants to rename Tux. I can’t say how much my calling Tux “Biggie” might have played into this decision.
Their vocabulary has expanded as they’ve settled in. The first day or so, they said mostly “Feed me!” and “Put me down!” We’re now greeted with chirps and trills.
They’ve just started determinedly escaping the room, much to the dismay of the adult cats in the household. The stairs are still a barrier, but that won’t last long.
They’ve made it clear that they want a dinosaur diet. The response to being offered chicken-based cat food was emphatically enthusiastic. The response to rotisserie chicken was … dramatic. Unfortunately, the video was at a bad angle, all tails and growls, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Someone asked about the cave Tux was playing in. It came with the kittens; we thought that having a familiar condo would help acclimate them. I had never seen one like that before, but I managed to find the manufacturer’s site. I’m apparently not allowed to post links any more, so a search on Amazon for “Prevue Catville Loft Cat Furniture” will turn it up.
I’ve also added a Nest cam clip to my YouTube channel, SisterRailGun.
Advice wanted: I have a video that I’d like to cut my breathing/wheezing out of before I post it, but I don’t want to lose the kitten noises. Any way to do that that without needing a degree in audio editing?
41.
Immanentize
@Baud: @NotMax:
I think I heard this author on Rick Steves’ radio show. He said that the Germans do have a word that means the opposite of schadenfreude which means, the pleasure you get from someone else’s good fortune. Of course I didn’t remember that word….
the corner detail was genius. But then again, I guess you know that…
Yes I did know that, I’m just too humble to bring it up on my own. In fact it is genius doubled as it has a mirrored twin at the other corner. There are clematis growing up both to finish their perfection.
I have more to do above the kneewall (genius ideas are germinating in my brain) and I may or may not put another trellis in the center.
Have I mentioned lately how humble I am? I am very humble….
Agree the headline is itself a source of pedantic bemusement. Wouldn’t be much of an article if they weren’t translated.
;)
45.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Are the “z” (backwards from this side) cross pieces on the corner trellis also bent wood? Or are they straight and look curved because of the opticals of the trellis front?
While visiting her, Mom made passing mention of the troubles she sometimes has shuttling others to or from her Italian class. On the spot I coined an Italian/Yiddish hybrid which later decided is worth holding on to: tsurissimo.
:)
48.
Scuffletuffle
What is the second flower down?
49.
Immanentize
@Baud:
Isn’t that just a byproduct of being Baudpolar?
@NotMax:
That is pretty excellent. Sometimes I suspect she suffers the Grand Tsurrisimo.
53.
Immanentize
@WereBear:
I really liked your naming post. Especially the part where you describe the increase in nicknames as a pet shows new aspects of their personality. It was a good example of how pets train humans.
@Immanentize: No, they are straight. The horizontal members hold the spacing while the angled ones keep the bend all to one side. Without them it would bend in both directions.
56.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scuffletuffle: It’s a zinnia, not quite fully opened.
57.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Really great. Thanks. I have a corner of my shed….
So after a month of dithering and two voters agin it, my application to join the august body of farmers market shareholders has been approved. Now we have to actually purchase the spot from the previous owner, remodel it a bit because there were meat coolers that will be removed, and then I have to move. I’m still skeptical that the third party to this buyout will close the deal, which could pull the entire thing down. But I figure if it happens it’s a safe enough place to park some investment $$ in case the TOTUS destroys the economy. I hope.
59.
debbie
OH, you have an exceptionally beautiful property!
The hydrangea this year were more profuse than I’ve ever seen them. It must have been the very wet spring. Some of the blooms were (literally) the size of volleyballs!
Are my eyes playing tricks on me? When I enlarge the top pic to get a closer look at what I think is Ozark’s water feature facing the bench, it looks like a doggie is peeking over the fence! I think it’s just the top spray of water making that pattern, isn’t it? Or is Percy making a guest appearance?
Being given the keys to and ostensibly put in charge* of the greenhouse at and while a student of my high school, ran an extra credit experiment with zinnias. One tray was plants grown from seed as per usual, using over the counter plant food, the other seeds from the same packet and nourished with an irradiated plant food at the time available from (IIRC) the TVA. Treated plants grew sprouted and grew somewhere near 20 per cent faster and ended up with blooms approximately 2½ times as large.
*My biology teacher was technically the guy whose baby it was but the early in the term decided I would derive negligible additional benefit beyond what I already knew from his class and turned most of the greenhouse duties over to li’l ole moi, the greenhouse being directly accessible from a door in his classroom. Interesting guy, he. One of the few teachers or instructors I ever came across who was a firm believer in, and skilled practitioner of, the Socratic method. One down side was that I was unable to get away during other than summer school vacations as had to make a daily trek to get into the greenhouse to water, prune, etc.
And congrats on the Farmer’s Market upgrade. Just curious — why the votes against someone committing to the Enterprise? Sounds like a crazy co-op association.
@Mary G: @OzarkHillbilly: you may figure out which red hydrangea here: all about red hydrangea plants.
My preferred hydrangeas, I have two vanilla strawberry plants, two zinfin dolls, and a ruby slippers.
Was taken out for dinner Saturday night by a friend, to a reliable and nice nearby restaurant. The steak was a good hunk o’ meat, cooked properly and slathered in a brandy and green peppercorn sauce..
However (to my taste) the chef had an extra heavy hand when it came to salting it before cooking. Seven hours later, still tasting salt.
72.
Immanentize
@satby:
Calling DAW. I think there might be a Farmer’s Market, community board, meat cooler, murder mystery available for the telling.
73.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
OK, I’m not allowed to have anything in the Website field, either.
We’re currently considering Loki for the mischievous little boy.
Maysie would like to say something to everyone.
ikjqkm,vbg KILO
I’m sure we all agree that was very profound.
74.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: A Great Spangled Fritillary. I think I like the name almost as much as the flutterby.
@Baud: He’s my shadow. Wherever I go, he is sure to follow.
@Immanentize: the trouble making beyotch of the market and her catspaw. She has a goat farm and sells lard based goat milk soap as well as lots of other stuff, and I outsell her hugely. Even though I send customers to her when I don’t have a scent or if they may be allergic to the ingredients I use. I refer a lot of customers to other vendors, and it’s never reciprocated, but I do better than many of them anyway. It’s a tiny fish pond and the struggle for dominance is absurd.
Most of them are third generation owners and have never worked anywhere else. Anyone who’s worked in a corporate environment can easily handle their stuff.
@Immanentize: oh, you’re giving me ideas…. But I think it’s TaMara who writes the mysteries. Maybe we can collaborate.
Dorothy writes wonderful YA fantasy fiction, BTW. I’ve enjoyed her books so much, as well as our other author jackals, that I signed up last night to become a Little Free Library location to share with the neighborhood kids. Only thing slowing my roll on that is the cost of the library houses themselves. Goals…
A moment the author never envisioned was encountered while seeing James Earl Jones playing Grandpa in You Can’t Take It With You on Broadway a few years back, who milked the line for every last drop.
“He’s Russian. They tend to go to (dramatic pause and rev up for Vaderesque intonation) the dark side“. Garnered a big laugh from the audience.
@Wanderer: Someone else probably answered this, but butterfly bushes die back to the ground every winter. They bloom on new growth, so saving the old growth wouldn’t buy you more blooms.
I don’t get home until Thursday morning. My brother gets back to Vegas from his European trip tomorrow night.
92.
LivinginExile
Tore the shingles off half the garage yesterday. No rain in the forecast for ten days. It’s been raining for two hours.
93.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: We became a 4some in August of last year. Percy was dumped on the conservation area and showed up at my goodhearted neighbor’s place along with a whippet like Missy. They would wander over for a visit then head back to B’s who swore she couldn’t take both but was feeding them anyway. Then Hurricane Gordon came for a 3 day visit and Percy refused to leave. I gave him water. And then I screwed up and gave him food. He persisted after that and so became Percy. He’s a terribly sweet boy with a history of abuse (has at least 3 scars on his forehead, maybe as many as 5) but his behaviors have improved considerably.
Woof has accepted him, tho at times it seems with reluctance.
94.
NotMax
Watching a compilation of “modern kitchen” promo films on Prime. One thing which (geeze, I wonder why?) never caught on – an oven with French doors.
Some other wonders included: a gas powered in-home incinerator (“No more trips outside to the trash can”) , and a clothes dryer which needs “no plumbing, no venting.”
Mine look like they are dead after the winter but they aren’t. You just have to wait and leave the dead looking stalks alone. My dad didn’t believe me and dug two of them up in his garden thinking they were dead. This past spring I sent him several photos showing how dead the stalks looked and then later when they all had green buds. I’m hoping he will try again to grow them.
I do put lots of leaves in the garden beds in the fall. If I can get seaweed, I add that to the beds, too.
@schrodingers_cat: Your state university extension services can also provide lots of info. The Illinois Extension offers email newsletters and has Master Gardeners in most counties or regions. They’re a great source for the latest pest and plant disease issues.
I just received notification that I met the volunteer hour requirements and am now a certified University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener. My volunteer time is spent in the Plant Information department at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I really am a rank beginner–there are folks at the Garden who’ve been volunteers for decades. I am pretty sure, though, that I now know all the things I did wrong in my yard over the years. Our classroom sessions took place during the winter, and at least once during every class, I would nod and tell myself “Now you know why that died.”
@Kristine: that sounds wonderful. Congrats on becoming a Master Gardener. I’d love to take that course.
105.
WaterGirl
@satby: Well done, satby! On spotting the pup and becoming part of the owner class at the market. :-)
There are petty, small-minded people everywhere, but happily there are more people who are not like that.
106.
WaterGirl
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Your frustrations this morning are reminding me the it’s been two weeks since I put up a site rebuild update post. I will do put something up later this morning.
107.
WaterGirl
@satby: How much do the little library houses cost?
Have you thought about offering naming rights? The Jackal Free Library.
108.
Spanky
@Kristine: Congratulations! What’s a good ground cover in sandy soil under oaks?
@WaterGirl: they have all sorts of cute ones in their shop, but it ranges from about $200-up.
Wonder if Ozark might feel creative over the winter ? (j/k OH)
Time to head out to make coffee for the UUs.
Without knowing anything, I would try to find out what native plants grow under oaks in your area, assuming you haven’t already done so. Ask local extensions, or do online searches where you end your search string with site:.edu to narrow the results to universities and their extension offices.
Frex, here’s an article from the UC Sonoma County MG Program. I’m not brushing you off, but as someone noted above, region matters when deciding what to plant. I’m getting to know northern IL/southern Wisconsin flora, but that info would be useless to someone living in a different growing zone.
Beautiful pix. I love our high desert garden, but I also love the luxuriant green, which is soothing to the eye and soul. I’m still jonesing for a water element in our garden. Some day.
120.
Immanentize
@Kristine:
Congratulations. Such a cool thing to do.
You and Kay should talk. IIRC, she was on the Roses hotline in Ohio for a bunch of years.
121.
Gin & Tonic
Here are some photos from the Pride parade in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located maybe 20-30 miles from the Russian border. Ukraine seems to be becoming a beacon of freedom in the post-Soviet space, whereas Russia … isn’t.
@Immanentize: Thank you. It’s been fun learning all this stuff, but humbling. So many poor plants died at my ignorant hand.
Roses are hard, at least imo. I have three mini-roses by my backdoor that come back every year despite the fact that I don’t support them beyond the occasional spritz for bugs or clean-up for blackspot. They’re surprisingly sturdy little things.
125.
Yarrow
Just gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing, OH.
126.
Wanderer
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for the reassurance. They look so dead come spring
127.
Wanderer
@MomSense: @Kristine: @satby: @Van Buren: Thanks to each of you. Consensus would be to mulch so I will. I am sorry for delayed response but had to be at a brunch. I truly appreciate all your replies.
We’ve got Monarchs flying all around our Mexican sunflowers although not as many as in years past. A little while ago I noticed a big spider sitting in a web right next to them……….a couple years ago we had a big old Monarch get caught in a web SO, I went out and took Mr. Spider down. A bit later a butterfly flew right through were the web had been! I thought I might’ve heard some tiny laughter, maybe……………..
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JPL
How lovely. You have your own private retreat, and I hope you have the time to enjoy it.
Baud
That patio almost makes me want to come visit you.
Mary G
Wow, that could be in a magazine. What’s the last flower?
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: We like it here.
@Baud: You’d be sorry.
@Mary G: Hydrangea.
Wanderer
I am looking for some guidance regarding overwintering of Butterfly Bushes. Mine die to the root here in southern NH and I wonder if mulch or burlap wrapping would help them regrow from the branches. Beautiful garden Ozark Hillbilly. Thank you for the photos.
Mel
Beautiful and so peaceful. And Bee Balm!!
Mary G
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought it was a hydrangea, but I’ve never seen one that red.
OzarkHillbilly
@Wanderer:
Mine do the same here and our winters are nothing compared to NH winters.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mary G: We bought it at a local garden show. I no longer remember any of the details. The first couple years it did very little in the way of flowering and remained a scrawny little thing that appeared to be barely hanging on. Then 3 or 4 years ago it just took off and has really come into it’s own. It currently resides in a bed of periwinkle but now I’m wishing I had planted it somewhere else where I could do more to highlight it.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
rikyrah
The pictures are beautiful ??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Raven
@rikyrah: Sweet! I finished my garden cart. It took me 10 days but I had to wait for the insanely overpriced axle brackets to come from Vermont!
RAVEN
@Raven: meant for Ozark
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: There’s a saying that “parts is parts”, but some parts cost more than other parts. ;-)
schrodingers_cat
Gardening gurus do you have any recommendations for landscaping books? We have a little more than an acre and right now its just boring old lawn and some trees and bushes and some flower beds in the front of the house.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: I have recommended this book a number of times but I can always plug it again: Covering Ground
Lapassionara
Lovely! Thanks for sharing.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: @schrodingers_cat: I took Ozark’s advice and checked Covering Ground out of the library along with a couple of other books on ground cover. It was the best one. It will be my guide in the next few years for replacing weeds and mulch with low growing ground cover.
schrodingers_cat
More on the Houston Modi rally. Indian media, which at this point is acting like a Modi broadcast service is reporting that many American electeds are expected T, may be Ted Cruz and Cornyn, Tulsi and another D congressman of Indian origin from Illinois whose name escapes me at this moment. Houston Chronicle on the other hand is reporting on the planned protest against the rally.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks I also need advice about hardscaping.I have some ideas for walkaways and gardens but don’t have the expertise or even the jargon to begin the process.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We saw pictures of this deck as it was being built, right? It turned out beautiful!
Gvg
@schrodingers_cat: remember to think local. I garden in Florida, and early on I found out garden books written for the whole country are laughably wrong. Stuff dies from our heat, or hangs on but never looks great, or needs a cold period. Check where the authors live or have lived. Local native plant societies are full of people who know what grows. Most of then grow non native too, they just emphasize native more, and tend to get rid of anything that struggles.
I do like a few books written about landscaping for general regions, I just often have to substitute plants. “The romantic garden” by Graham Rose, “Attracting birds to southern gardens”, “the garden in autumn” by Alan Lacy. I learned a lot about design from magazines such as Southern Living, Fine Gardening, and Garden Design. Collect magazine pictures of any garden you like, and organize them in folders or ring binders. If there is some type of feature you save over and over, that means you really consistently like that. It will also help if you end up talking to a professional designer.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The shipping was the killer! I could have gone the field expediency route but when I found out how much they cost I figured “what the hell”!
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Same book covered hardscaping, which I don’t need with < 1/8 acre. We put in a brick patio and fish pond and that’s all the hard surface I want to have
I’ll have to send a pic or two one of these days. Corsican Mint is taking over some of the area (and surviving the winter). Smells great when you step on it!
raven
@schrodingers_cat: Did you know that Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was on the faculty at the University of Illinois?
Van Buren
@Wanderer: I’m on Long Island. My wife prunes ours back to about a foot in late Autumn, and we mulch. It does pretty well.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@Wanderer: that’s normal for butterfly bush in colder climates, but it will regrow quickly. Mulching it will protect the root ball though, so it won’t hurt.
@OzarkHillbilly: really lovely garden spot! My hydrangea plants are all doing the “first year sleeping, second year creeping” thing, so next summer I hope for that “third year leap” that finished the old garden rhyme. My peonies are doing the same thing, so I have high hopes for 2020, in many ways ?
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: She talks about hardscaping too, it’s uses and the various types, their pros and cons, but iirc it is mostly about plantings with them. My memory could be wrong on that last point.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes you did.
@Raven: Shipping gets me every time because I don’t order stuff until I need it and I always needed it yesterday.
schrodingers_cat
@raven: I didn’t know that.
NotMax
Morning mind candy: Yes, Virginia, there’s a word for that…
11 Untranslatable Words for Happiness From Around the World
Immanentize
Nice flowers, Ozark. And that is the carpark patio, right? Excellent looking barrier — the corner detail was genius. But then again, I guess you know that….
Baud
@NotMax:
No schadenfreude?
Jeffro
Whew what a win by Virginia last night…I think the football team took lessons on heart-stopping last second finishes from the basketball team!
Also, looks like in addition to taking everyone’s AR-15s, we will need to #ImpeachKavanaugh (in addition to dozens of other trumpov/McConnell judges, I’m sure). Exciting times!
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Imagine my shock on clicking thru and finding that the 11 words are indeed translatable.
Immanentize
I have a very big Limelight Hydrangea in my yard that I love. The flowers go from light green to a near white to green and now they are turning fall rusty red. I love this plant and it has gotten huge — ten plus feet high and as wide. The red flowers look great cut in a case, although they do not smell as sweet as when the are white.
waratah
I have been waiting for photos of your water feature area this year and hoped I did not miss them. Beautiful and relaxing. The plants really filled in and your carpentry skills really show.
Your close up flower photos are gorgeous.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Repeating for the morning crowd.
My husband wants to rename Tux. I can’t say how much my calling Tux “Biggie” might have played into this decision.
Their vocabulary has expanded as they’ve settled in. The first day or so, they said mostly “Feed me!” and “Put me down!” We’re now greeted with chirps and trills.
They’ve just started determinedly escaping the room, much to the dismay of the adult cats in the household. The stairs are still a barrier, but that won’t last long.
They’ve made it clear that they want a dinosaur diet. The response to being offered chicken-based cat food was emphatically enthusiastic. The response to rotisserie chicken was … dramatic. Unfortunately, the video was at a bad angle, all tails and growls, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Someone asked about the cave Tux was playing in. It came with the kittens; we thought that having a familiar condo would help acclimate them. I had never seen one like that before, but I managed to find the manufacturer’s site. I’m apparently not allowed to post links any more, so a search on Amazon for “Prevue Catville Loft Cat Furniture” will turn it up.
I’ve also added a Nest cam clip to my YouTube channel, SisterRailGun.
Advice wanted: I have a video that I’d like to cut my breathing/wheezing out of before I post it, but I don’t want to lose the kitten noises. Any way to do that that without needing a degree in audio editing?
Immanentize
@Baud: @NotMax:
I think I heard this author on Rick Steves’ radio show. He said that the Germans do have a word that means the opposite of schadenfreude which means, the pleasure you get from someone else’s good fortune. Of course I didn’t remember that word….
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): you home yet? Or is that tomorrow?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize:
Yes I did know that, I’m just too humble to bring it up on my own. In fact it is genius doubled as it has a mirrored twin at the other corner. There are clematis growing up both to finish their perfection.
I have more to do above the kneewall (genius ideas are germinating in my brain) and I may or may not put another trellis in the center.
Have I mentioned lately how humble I am? I am very humble….
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Agree the headline is itself a source of pedantic bemusement. Wouldn’t be much of an article if they weren’t translated.
;)
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Are the “z” (backwards from this side) cross pieces on the corner trellis also bent wood? Or are they straight and look curved because of the opticals of the trellis front?
Baud
@Immanentize:
I use Baudphoria to describe the pleasure I get from my own good fortune.
NotMax
@Immanentize
While visiting her, Mom made passing mention of the troubles she sometimes has shuttling others to or from her Italian class. On the spot I coined an Italian/Yiddish hybrid which later decided is worth holding on to: tsurissimo.
:)
Scuffletuffle
What is the second flower down?
Immanentize
@Baud:
Isn’t that just a byproduct of being Baudpolar?
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Gorgeous stuff! Nice photos, too :)
All of my gardening attempts fell flat and got et this season. But I have a new kitten crop already in, and those I know how to do.
NotMax
@Baud
Baudacious.
:)
Immanentize
@NotMax:
That is pretty excellent. Sometimes I suspect she suffers the Grand Tsurrisimo.
Immanentize
@WereBear:
I really liked your naming post. Especially the part where you describe the increase in nicknames as a pet shows new aspects of their personality. It was a good example of how pets train humans.
satby
@Baud: @Immanentize: @NotMax: damn, I’m in the (virtual) presence of greatness.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: No, they are straight. The horizontal members hold the spacing while the angled ones keep the bend all to one side. Without them it would bend in both directions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scuffletuffle: It’s a zinnia, not quite fully opened.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Really great. Thanks. I have a corner of my shed….
Next year.
satby
So after a month of dithering and two voters agin it, my application to join the august body of farmers market shareholders has been approved. Now we have to actually purchase the spot from the previous owner, remodel it a bit because there were meat coolers that will be removed, and then I have to move. I’m still skeptical that the third party to this buyout will close the deal, which could pull the entire thing down. But I figure if it happens it’s a safe enough place to park some investment $$ in case the TOTUS destroys the economy. I hope.
debbie
OH, you have an exceptionally beautiful property!
The hydrangea this year were more profuse than I’ve ever seen them. It must have been the very wet spring. Some of the blooms were (literally) the size of volleyballs!
satby
Are my eyes playing tricks on me? When I enlarge the top pic to get a closer look at what I think is Ozark’s water feature facing the bench, it looks like a doggie is peeking over the fence! I think it’s just the top spray of water making that pattern, isn’t it? Or is Percy making a guest appearance?
Ken
@satby: Maybe it’s a feral hog?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Being given the keys to and ostensibly put in charge* of the greenhouse at and while a student of my high school, ran an extra credit experiment with zinnias. One tray was plants grown from seed as per usual, using over the counter plant food, the other seeds from the same packet and nourished with an irradiated plant food at the time available from (IIRC) the TVA. Treated plants grew sprouted and grew somewhere near 20 per cent faster and ended up with blooms approximately 2½ times as large.
*My biology teacher was technically the guy whose baby it was but the early in the term decided I would derive negligible additional benefit beyond what I already knew from his class and turned most of the greenhouse duties over to li’l ole moi, the greenhouse being directly accessible from a door in his classroom. Interesting guy, he. One of the few teachers or instructors I ever came across who was a firm believer in, and skilled practitioner of, the Socratic method. One down side was that I was unable to get away during other than summer school vacations as had to make a daily trek to get into the greenhouse to water, prune, etc.
debbie
@satby:
You’re right! I think it’s the puppish coloration of a planting.
Immanentize
@satby:
That is definitely the pooch!
And congrats on the Farmer’s Market upgrade. Just curious — why the votes against someone committing to the Enterprise? Sounds like a crazy co-op association.
NotMax
@satby
Yay! The start of the soon to be burgeoning satby empire.
In addition to soaps, you could now branch out into … cold cream.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I was waiting for somebody to notice Percy asking if he could come in. Only took until #60.
There is also a small critter hiding among the paleaes* in the cone flower pic. (lower right quadrant of the cone)
*and yes, I had to look that up
satby
@Mary G: @OzarkHillbilly: you may figure out which red hydrangea here: all about red hydrangea plants.
My preferred hydrangeas, I have two vanilla strawberry plants, two zinfin dolls, and a ruby slippers.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not to mention the flutterby
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
He’s a good boy. But hard to see when looking at the photo on the phone.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: And congrats on your new digs. I think.
NotMax
Was taken out for dinner Saturday night by a friend, to a reliable and nice nearby restaurant. The steak was a good hunk o’ meat, cooked properly and slathered in a brandy and green peppercorn sauce..
However (to my taste) the chef had an extra heavy hand when it came to salting it before cooking. Seven hours later, still tasting salt.
Immanentize
@satby:
Calling DAW. I think there might be a Farmer’s Market, community board, meat cooler, murder mystery available for the telling.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
OK, I’m not allowed to have anything in the Website field, either.
We’re currently considering Loki for the mischievous little boy.
Maysie would like to say something to everyone.
ikjqkm,vbg KILO
I’m sure we all agree that was very profound.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: A Great Spangled Fritillary. I think I like the name almost as much as the flutterby.
@Baud: He’s my shadow. Wherever I go, he is sure to follow.
satby
@Immanentize: the trouble making beyotch of the market and her catspaw. She has a goat farm and sells lard based goat milk soap as well as lots of other stuff, and I outsell her hugely. Even though I send customers to her when I don’t have a scent or if they may be allergic to the ingredients I use. I refer a lot of customers to other vendors, and it’s never reciprocated, but I do better than many of them anyway. It’s a tiny fish pond and the struggle for dominance is absurd.
Most of them are third generation owners and have never worked anywhere else. Anyone who’s worked in a corporate environment can easily handle their stuff.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: From the mouths of babes…
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I notice none of them are Russian.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Loki is much better than Tux!
satby
@NotMax: ahhh…..
NotMax
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Oh, great. WOPR just jumped to Defcon 2.
:)
satby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: love it!
Currants
Thank you, Ozark HB—those are gorgeous photos. What a pleasure this morning!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Do you have more than one dog? How did I think you are owned by a Black Lab?
satby
@Immanentize: oh, you’re giving me ideas…. But I think it’s TaMara who writes the mysteries. Maybe we can collaborate.
Dorothy writes wonderful YA fantasy fiction, BTW. I’ve enjoyed her books so much, as well as our other author jackals, that I signed up last night to become a Little Free Library location to share with the neighborhood kids. Only thing slowing my roll on that is the cost of the library houses themselves. Goals…
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
A moment the author never envisioned was encountered while seeing James Earl Jones playing Grandpa in You Can’t Take It With You on Broadway a few years back, who milked the line for every last drop.
“He’s Russian. They tend to go to (dramatic pause and rev up for Vaderesque intonation) the dark side“. Garnered a big laugh from the audience.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: and once you see him, it’s so obvious. Love his sweet little face.
satby
@satby: shoot, forgot the link to Little Free Library
delk
Wow, just wow.
Kristine
@Wanderer: Someone else probably answered this, but butterfly bushes die back to the ground every winter. They bloom on new growth, so saving the old growth wouldn’t buy you more blooms.
Kristine
I love your retreat, @OzarkHillbilly.
I’m really going to miss flowers when the cold settles here in NE Illinois.
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
I don’t get home until Thursday morning. My brother gets back to Vegas from his European trip tomorrow night.
LivinginExile
Tore the shingles off half the garage yesterday. No rain in the forecast for ten days. It’s been raining for two hours.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: We became a 4some in August of last year. Percy was dumped on the conservation area and showed up at my goodhearted neighbor’s place along with a whippet like Missy. They would wander over for a visit then head back to B’s who swore she couldn’t take both but was feeding them anyway. Then Hurricane Gordon came for a 3 day visit and Percy refused to leave. I gave him water. And then I screwed up and gave him food. He persisted after that and so became Percy. He’s a terribly sweet boy with a history of abuse (has at least 3 scars on his forehead, maybe as many as 5) but his behaviors have improved considerably.
Woof has accepted him, tho at times it seems with reluctance.
NotMax
Watching a compilation of “modern kitchen” promo films on Prime. One thing which (geeze, I wonder why?) never caught on – an oven with French doors.
Some other wonders included: a gas powered in-home incinerator (“No more trips outside to the trash can”) , and a clothes dryer which needs “no plumbing, no venting.”
MomSense
@Wanderer:
Mine look like they are dead after the winter but they aren’t. You just have to wait and leave the dead looking stalks alone. My dad didn’t believe me and dug two of them up in his garden thinking they were dead. This past spring I sent him several photos showing how dead the stalks looked and then later when they all had green buds. I’m hoping he will try again to grow them.
I do put lots of leaves in the garden beds in the fall. If I can get seaweed, I add that to the beds, too.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sweet story. “Everywhere you turn, there I am.”
MomSense
@NotMax:
Have you seen East Side Sushi? I loved it. I completely fell in love with the main characters.
MomSense
Ozark I love that deck area with the beautiful flower beds around it. Such a nice space.
Kristine
@schrodingers_cat: Your state university extension services can also provide lots of info. The Illinois Extension offers email newsletters and has Master Gardeners in most counties or regions. They’re a great source for the latest pest and plant disease issues.
I just received notification that I met the volunteer hour requirements and am now a certified University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener. My volunteer time is spent in the Plant Information department at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I really am a rank beginner–there are folks at the Garden who’ve been volunteers for decades. I am pretty sure, though, that I now know all the things I did wrong in my yard over the years. Our classroom sessions took place during the winter, and at least once during every class, I would nod and tell myself “Now you know why that died.”
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): ok, I thought I remembered something about Monday. Safe travels to your brother and better days for your mom.
NotMax
Now the compilation is showing a promotional film on the miracles of the Mullins brand Youngstown Kitchens automatic dishwasher. Mul-who?
@MomSense
New one on me.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kristine: How’s about coming over and telling me everything I’m doing wrong? It would be a real timesaver.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Funny, just yesterday I was looking at my Little Lime Hydranga which is easily 2 or 3 times bigger than I thought it would get.
I was wondering why the heck they called it Little Lime if it wasn’t going to stay little!
Now I know. Mine is maybe 5′ x 5′.
satby
@Kristine: that sounds wonderful. Congrats on becoming a Master Gardener. I’d love to take that course.
WaterGirl
@satby: Well done, satby! On spotting the pup and becoming part of the owner class at the market. :-)
There are petty, small-minded people everywhere, but happily there are more people who are not like that.
WaterGirl
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Your frustrations this morning are reminding me the it’s been two weeks since I put up a site rebuild update post. I will do put something up later this morning.
WaterGirl
@satby: How much do the little library houses cost?
Have you thought about offering naming rights? The Jackal Free Library.
Spanky
@Kristine: Congratulations! What’s a good ground cover in sandy soil under oaks?
Steeplejack
@satby:
Thanks. I am ready for this trip to be over. I do miss the housecat, and I want to be back in my own space.
WereBear
@Immanentize: Thanks! I tell Tristan they are going to be the stars of the show if he’s not careful.
Since he’s a showbiz beast, it’s persuasive.
satby
@WaterGirl: they have all sorts of cute ones in their shop, but it ranges from about $200-up.
Wonder if Ozark might feel creative over the winter ? (j/k OH)
Time to head out to make coffee for the UUs.
Kristine
@Spanky: Where do you live?
Without knowing anything, I would try to find out what native plants grow under oaks in your area, assuming you haven’t already done so. Ask local extensions, or do online searches where you end your search string with site:.edu to narrow the results to universities and their extension offices.
Frex, here’s an article from the UC Sonoma County MG Program. I’m not brushing you off, but as someone noted above, region matters when deciding what to plant. I’m getting to know northern IL/southern Wisconsin flora, but that info would be useless to someone living in a different growing zone.
MomSense
@NotMax:
You’re in for something special.
Kristine
@satby: Thanks! It was fun. Very informative. And I love the Garden, so the chance to visit a few times a month is a bonus.
I’m an egg when it comes to all this. Right now, I’m planning how to shuffle around my existing plants and deal with the mistakes I made years ago.
WereBear
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Loki is a grand cat name!
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Your garden looks gorgeous. I’d probably just wander around and gape.
Immanentize
@LivinginExile:
I am pretty much non-stop laughing at that. Story of my life.
“God knows justice but waits”?
Miss Bianca
@Kristine: Congratulations!
O. Felix Culpa
Beautiful pix. I love our high desert garden, but I also love the luxuriant green, which is soothing to the eye and soul. I’m still jonesing for a water element in our garden. Some day.
Immanentize
@Kristine:
Congratulations. Such a cool thing to do.
You and Kay should talk. IIRC, she was on the Roses hotline in Ohio for a bunch of years.
Gin & Tonic
Here are some photos from the Pride parade in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located maybe 20-30 miles from the Russian border. Ukraine seems to be becoming a beacon of freedom in the post-Soviet space, whereas Russia … isn’t.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: Very cool. Good for Ukraine.
LivinginExile
@Immanentize: Rain has stopped. I think I’ll tear the other half off this afternoon. It will be the first monsoon In Illinois history.
Kristine
@Immanentize: Thank you. It’s been fun learning all this stuff, but humbling. So many poor plants died at my ignorant hand.
Roses are hard, at least imo. I have three mini-roses by my backdoor that come back every year despite the fact that I don’t support them beyond the occasional spritz for bugs or clean-up for blackspot. They’re surprisingly sturdy little things.
Yarrow
Just gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing, OH.
Wanderer
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for the reassurance. They look so dead come spring
Wanderer
@MomSense: @Kristine: @satby: @Van Buren: Thanks to each of you. Consensus would be to mulch so I will. I am sorry for delayed response but had to be at a brunch. I truly appreciate all your replies.
John Revolta
We’ve got Monarchs flying all around our Mexican sunflowers although not as many as in years past. A little while ago I noticed a big spider sitting in a web right next to them……….a couple years ago we had a big old Monarch get caught in a web SO, I went out and took Mr. Spider down. A bit later a butterfly flew right through were the web had been! I thought I might’ve heard some tiny laughter, maybe……………..